Had another thought

Drying or curing primer doesn’t actually make sense to me. The  primer when air dried naturally will set up the color paint as it should assist in the adherence.  So I guess the key question is that plastic wrap/mask safe to heat? Don’t need sticky goo in the model drive! All part of the mindful do no harm idea. I have access to a drying cabinet. Maybe the Saran Wrap people would know the heat tolerance of plastic wrap. That might save me some experimentation faux pas! I understand through some information that decals are safe in the heat drying process. 
any ideas welcomed.

thanks, Transfer.

Ahh, plastic wrap

Plastic wrap melts at 220 to 250 degrees and questions now are geared to just how much shrinkage May be involved!  Temperature of 100 for a longer duration to 135 for 25 mins according to info obtained.

I will let the Saran Wrap cool down before removing it from the inside of  trucks frames and surrounding wheels.

Reviewing possibilities and steps is part of a well (hopefully) executed primary plan! Lol.

will attempt the experiment.

thx Transfer.

masking, cleaning and handling.

Masking is never perfect; so paint particle will get through.

Professional painters take brass models apart, and ultrasonically clean all the bits to be painted, handle everything with gloves after cleaning.  Failure to do a proper cleaning results in paint not sticking, areas of orange peel, etc which look like crap.

If you are not willing to do the job correctly, do not attempt it; as you will be very unhappy with the results.

Nigel, thx for your caring

Nigel, thx for your caring cautionary comments. But read the what I have written above.

I am aware of the sterile technique and pre treatment. I have done all of this first. 
my inquiry was not about the basics. It was an attempt to see if others had experience with a drying/curing cabinet and plastic durability and heat.

drying in a dust free environment for several days is what I planned to do. I wondered what others have experienced in a drying cabinet.

Paint ovens and such

Lots to cover here.  Personally I always like to disassemble running gear so I can degrease it well and pin it to cardboard for priming.  I do, however, like to spray the last pass with everything assembled and running.  (Nonflammable paints/solvents for obvious reasons.) The big thing is to get the brass clean, clean, clean!  
 

as far as ovens are concerned.  I actually built one and won’t go back!  Mine is a discarded metal box with a 100w lightbulb (incandescent) inside.  A wall wart, plugged into the ceramic light socket, and a 12v computer fan provide circulation.  I also added a switch from an old heating pad that has a high and low setting.  With the 100w bulb, full power keeps the temp around 120F at low power it’s around 100F.  Changing bulb wattage would give a similar effect.  For metal I will sometimes pre-heat the part, especially if it’s cool in the basement.  For most things I take a ‘go slow’ approach and bake overnight before doing any other coats.  Plastic I hero on low temp, though I doubt 120F will damage most of what I have.

Masking.  For anything where I want a clean line I use Tamiya masking tape and burnish the exposed edge.  A small bamboo skewer works well for this.  Larger areas just get ordinary painters tape over the top.  I don’t leave the tape on when I bake, though I have had it on during preheat without incident.  Best to take it off after painting if you can.  Any poorly burnished edges tend to get capillary action and pull paint under the tape.  The sooner it’s removed, the less likely you’ll have to deal with this.

The oven

In case you were wondering, here is the ‘oven’. If you can find an old metal breadbox or a used metal mailbox you will be half way there.  This was quite literally made with junk parts in my shop, so it could be made a bit more fancy, but it works, so I’ve never bothered to dress it up.
 

Nice post

EngineeringJohnson

good information, I will pull the tape after a spray prior to baking. Ok 

Nice oven photo! Looks like it will bake a cake too! 
thank you for the reply.

. 

Thanks!

I’m not on here very often, so it’s nice to see a topic and think, “Oh!  I know something about that!”

good luck, and post pictures!!

Hey engineering Johnson

Recent photos in order of appearance.

Paint is cured.

Jack from France and EngineeringJohnson

thanks for your interest in my long overdue project.

Will update project progress.

have a good week.

transfer

Help needed

Question about a detail part and an important decal, how to apply.

on the front of this hood there is a door handle. See photo below.  Does anyone know a way I can manage to save the handle and apply the decal? I don’t think micro sol or micro set will  bring the decal down? I have already ruined two.  I have three left!  Might  I be able to realistically alter the decal with a hole for the handle to fit through? Or should I just remove the handles? Not sure how to without breaking it. Any suggestions greatly appreciated. 
 

Beautiful paint!!

Love the color and the coverage! Very nicely done.  You’ll have a great looking switcher when you’re all through.

now for the decal…

The ideal situation would be to place the decal first, poke a hole from outside in then install the handle.  Since the handle is almost certainly soldered in we’ll come back to that.

If the handle is very close to the edge of the decal you might use a small drill to make a hole in the paper and all, then sharp scissors to cut a slit from the edge to the hole.  You’ll need plenty of micro set to float it into place,, coaxing the cut around the handle with a small brush.  

if it isn’t near the edge of the decal, you could cut the decal where the edge of the door goes and just be careful to line up the two halves.  The edge of the door forms a natural break, so even if you get a tiny gap it won’t do any real harm.  Then of course you still need a hole and a slit for the door handle.  For these approaches I would strongly suggest using micro scale liquid decal film as it will make the decal slightly thicker and stronger.

Now, back to the handle.  It’s almost certainly soldered in.  Chances are there is a brass stub protruding into the shell with a gray ring of solder around it.  If I wanted to remove the handle, I would secure the shell so I had easy access to the inside, place a hemostat clamp on the handle, and touch a soldering iron to the stub on the inside of the shell until the solder melted and the handle pulled out.  Once you’ve cleaned up around the hole and set the decal you can repaint and reinstall the handle.  If it protrudes 1 or 2mm inside the shell, epoxy ought to secure it well.  If it’s flush inside, it’ll need to be resoldered.

Before you even think about using the solder iron, best make a test piece of brass.  Solder on one side and primer/paint on the other.  If you can’t desolder a wire from that without discoloring or blistering the paint you’ll be back to fancy tricks with the decal.

Good luck!  Isn’t the model building world a thrill a minute?!  

EngineerJohnson!

Wow what a lot of great info/advice! 

after looking over my options, and ruining a few nose heralds, I chose that which made the most sense.

if I had a resistance soldering iron I would have removed the handle without worries. Didn’t go there.

the x acto #11 blade didn’t pan out pre decal instal. 

the couple of templates I made to find the right measurements for that vertical slice were sketchy.

so, I got the decal halfway off the backing at the top, and held it firmly to the top placement.

then I slid the backing off and started to smoothen out the bottom of the triangle. Then I took a very thin fresh surgical scalpel and pressed it against the handle. Scored a thin vertical cut directly over the front of the handle, and drove the decal home pressing with a wide brush and microset. Dried it well and repeated the micro set. it isn’t perfect but, I can tell you that the other end was a breeze. Only have this photo of the aftermath of the above described!

Yeah modeling is a great adventure. This is my first brass paint, decal and finishing. Until 3 weeks ago this W&R O scale 44 T was residing in a box on a dusty shelf! 
hey thanks for your enthusiasm.

did you see the louvres application topic?

Let there be louvres.

will add photo of that here too.

Louvres

What a great paint job and

What a great paint job and nice model; I didn't realize it was brass.

I have only painted brass sides of tenders and cabs of steam locos.

I used the my hot water tank room in the suite for my oven ; )

https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/37560?page=5

Gutsy move slicing the film

Gutsy move slicing the film like that.  Love the result!!

I hadn’t noticed the louver thread until you mentioned it.  Very slick work!  Now does it get displayed as is or does it get working clothes?

Delayed response

Deemiorgos and EngineeringJohnson. Thanks for your comments.

Slicing into a decal while placing it is not just gutsy, it’s just plain scary! Lol. Anyway I will have a bit more slicing to do on the pilot decals.  That is the next big adventure. There is a post about that in progress (post: 44 T project front chassis stripes advise please) . Then there is a post about a couple unidentified vertical objects ( post: what is this red vertical object on 44 T).

This MEC #11 is for display and operation on a layout that will be restarted rebuilt in 2022.

but first, a couple of scratch built applied parts to be placed (see above mentioned post)  The metallic worn paint applied to various detail areas, head lights and lenses, possibly cab lighting, interior detail painting of Cab. Window glass adaption.
light Weathering if I dare, oil spills, dirt, grime, rust,  flat coating., add KD’s weather them, paint those silver wheels muddy grime etc. add a artista motorman. 
maybe add a steel tool trunk on deck. Or some tools.

As mentioned before the brass loco sat in a box on a dusty shelf for eight years. I am starting to feel confident that reaching the goals with this are no longer time based. The journey is more relevant now than the destination.

overcoming the past now decades long inertia only tells me that my bucket list is bursting with unfinished modeling business! Trying to live in the moment with each new experience with this 44T has proven enjoyable.

I appreciate your posts, ideas, experience which supported me well. Without your help it may have sat in the box another 8 + years! 
still in development, stay tuned.